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Thanksgiving & Christmas Flight Delays at SAV: Savannah Hilton Head International Airport

Over the last four Thanksgiving travel weeks (2022–2025, Tuesday before through Sunday after), 17.8% of flights that left Savannah Hilton Head International Airport (Savannah, GA) arrived at least 15 minutes late and 0.4% were cancelled. In the rest of November the same airport had 14.3% late and 0.8% cancelled, so Thanksgiving week had 3.5 points more late arrivals. The best day was Thanksgiving Day (9.4% late); the worst was Sun after (31.1% late).

17.8%late arrivals, Thanksgiving week

0.4%cancelled, Thanksgiving week

23.7%late arrivals, Dec 20–31

2.9%cancelled, Dec 20–31

Which day of Thanksgiving week is best at SAV?

Day	Flights (4 yrs)	Late (15+ min)	Cancelled	Avg dep. delay (min)
Tue before	216	13.0%	0.0%	11.2
Wed before	220	16.4%	0.0%	13.4
Thanksgiving Day	106	9.4%	0.0%	10.5
Fri after	181	9.4%	0.0%	9.2
Sat after	227	21.4%	1.3%	25.5
Sun after	228	31.1%	0.9%	19.8

Pooled over 2022–2025. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so the window is Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29. Individual days have fewer flights, so small differences are noise.

Year by year at SAV

Year	Thanksgiving week late	Thanksgiving week cancelled	Rest of Nov. late	Dec 20–31 late	Dec 20–31 cancelled
2022	15.7%	0.4%	15.4%	32.7%	8.8%
2023	11.2%	0.0%	10.4%	17.7%	0.9%
2024	20.1%	0.0%	14.4%	26.9%	1.3%
2025	23.1%	1.2%	16.8%	18.5%	1.6%

Single years can be dominated by one storm or airline meltdown; look at the range, not just the average. Dec 20–31, 2022 includes the late-December 2022 winter storm and airline disruptions nationwide.

Christmas week (Dec 20–31) at SAV

Across 2022–2025, 23.7% of flights from SAV arrived 15+ minutes late and 2.9% were cancelled during Dec 20–31, compared with 17.0% late and 0.8% cancelled from Dec 1–19 (+6.7 pts late arrivals).

Why flights from SAV were late (Thanksgiving week)

Cause category (BTS)	Share of delay minutes
Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning…)	39.2%
Extreme weather	9.5%
National Aviation System (air traffic, volume)	19.7%
Security	0.0%
Late-arriving aircraft	31.6%

Share of reported delay minutes on flights that arrived 15+ minutes late. “Extreme weather” is only a narrow category; many weather-related delays are counted under National Aviation System or late-arriving aircraft. Categories are assigned by airlines to BTS rules.

Other airports nearby

ATL – Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Source: BTS Airline On-Time Performance data, flights departing SAV operated by airlines that report to BTS. “Late” = arrived 15 or more minutes after schedule (the DOT definition), counted among flights that were not cancelled or diverted. Computed by Holiday Delay Odds; see methodology.